Generally, a green vehicle such as a hybrid vehicle, an electric vehicle, etc., uses an electric motor as a driving source and a high voltage battery as an energy source to drive the electric motor. The green vehicle uses an inverter providing power to the electric motor and a low DC-DC converter (LDC) to generate 12V power supply for a vehicle as power conversion parts.
Converting a DC power supply of the high voltage battery into a three-phase AC power supply, the inverter disposed between the electric motor and the high voltage battery provides the three-phase AC power supply to the electric motor. Also, the LDC supplies the 12V DC power supply to an automotive application component by converting the DC power supply of the high voltage battery into a DC power supply of 12V for a vehicle.
Recently, a unit that integrates an inverter, a converter and a control board for a control thereof in a package shape has been named a Hybrid Power Control Unit (HPCU).
In addition, the HPCU for the green vehicle is required to achieve miniaturization, simplification, and high efficiency through enhancement of cooling efficiency and improvement of packaging structure.
FIG. 1 is a view schematically illustrating a power control unit for a conventional green car.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a power control unit for a conventional green vehicle is configured with a converter 2 installed in a first housing 1 and an inverter 4 and a control board 5 installed in a second housing 3, wherein the first housing 1 and the second housing 3 are arranged neighboring each other.
In the inverter 4, a plurality of power modules such as Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT) are provided, and a gate board and a capacitor module are composed for a control of the power modules.
This type of power control unit for the conventional green vehicle has the following drawbacks.
Since the housings for the inverter and converter are separately provided, so it is difficult for size thereof to be reduced.
Also, since the gate board and control board are arranged to have the capacitor therebetween and are connected through wiring, a separate space for wiring is required.
The power module adopts a structure having only one surface thereof cooled, so cooling efficiency thereof is low.
Since the capacitor has no cooling structure, there is a limitation in size reduction and cooling of the capacitor.
Since mounted component parts such as the converter, inverter, and control board are each installed by being individually clamped in first and second sealed housings, assemblability thereof complex.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean that the present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.